This is the second visit trip, and the one we most enjoy planning. Jaffna is a different country in most of the ways that matter: different language, different food, different religion, and a landscape of palmyra palms and lagoons that looks nothing like the south.
It also runs in the months when the south is under water, which is why it exists.
Duration
16 days
Best months
Feb, Mar, Apr, May, Jun, Jul, Aug, Sep
Pace
Balanced
Regions
4
A short transfer and an early night.
The largest park and the quietest.
A full day with a packed breakfast.
Donkeys, salt pans and baobabs. Nowhere else looks like this.
The sandbank chain toward India, and a bird list that runs to hundreds.
Across the causeways into the peninsula.
The fort, the library, Nallur temple at dusk, and the best crab curry on the island.
Wild ponies, coral walls and a baobab the Arabs planted. A long day, worth every hour.
Free, or the northern islands if you have energy left.
The longest day of the trip.
Koneswaram on the cliff, hot springs, and Nilaveli beach.
Snorkelling over reef in water you can stand in. Go early.
Free.
Back toward the centre for the sites you skipped on the way up.
The rock at dawn, the ruins by bicycle after lunch.
South to the airport.
Jetwing Lagoon
Close to the airport.
Wilpattu Safari Camp
Tented, simple, and right at the gate.
Palmyrah House
A small guesthouse and the only real option, which happens to be a good one.
Jetwing Jaffna
The only proper hotel in town and genuinely comfortable.
Jungle Beach
Cabins in forest above an empty bay.
Water Garden
Villas with the rock from the pool.
Included
Not included
Payment schedule
Twenty per cent deposit to confirm. Balance due sixty days before arrival. Card or bank transfer, in GBP or USD.
Cancellation
Free up to sixty days out. Fifty per cent between sixty and thirty days. Non refundable inside thirty days, though we will move your dates once at no charge.
Entirely. It has been open to visitors without restriction for over a decade and the roads are better than most of the south.
It is the right length. The distances up here are genuinely large and compressing it would put you in the car for five hours at a time.
From
Based on two people sharing, comfort tier. Excludes international flights.
Ruwan Jayasuriya
Founder, 18 years
We reply within one working day. Sri Lanka is GMT+5:30, so we work UK afternoons.